Celtic Odyssey

In our ongoing look at the eschatology in the the Letters of the New Testament (which started here ), we’ll continue with the letters of Paul. This time, we’ll briefly look at 1 Corinthians. First Corinthians was written from Ephesus in roughly 55 CE. That’s a little over twenty years after Jesus and about ten years before the beginning of the Jewish-Roman war (66 CE). In this letter, Paul makes several statements about the followers of Jesus in Corinth experiencing the return of Jesus ( 1.7-8; 3.12-14 ; etc.). In chapter 7, he wrote: 1 Corinthians 7.29-31 (adapted): This is what I’m saying, brothers and sisters: The time has drawn short. From now on, those who have wives should be like people who don’t have them. Those who are sad should be like people who aren’t crying. Those who are happy should be like people who aren’t happy. Those who buy something should be like people who don’t have possessions. Those who use the world should be like people who aren’t preoccupied with ...

In this series, we’re reviewing the book, Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity , by David M. Felten and Jeff Procter-Murphy. In this post, we’ll be reviewing chapters 14-16. Chapter 14: Honoring Creation In this chapter, Felten and Procter-Murphy show how a dualistic view of creation can be detrimental to our world. They counter that with what theologians call “pan en theism.” “Not to be confused,” they say, “with the ‘God is everything’ of pantheism, theologians have dubbed the subtle yet very different understanding of ‘God in everything’ as pan en theism” (pg. 138).  And later, they say, Embracing a consciousness of the Divine in everything and everything being enveloped by the Divine counters the dualist idea of God being somewhere “out there” with a profound and immediate awareness of the divine presence here and now (pg. 138). This plays to my Celtic leanings. For those who don’t know, the “Celtic” Christians of yore had a unique understandin...

John 4.5-42 (CEB): He came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, which was near the land Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there. Jesus was tired from his journey, so he sat down at the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to the well to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me some water to drink.” His disciples had gone into the city to buy him some food. The Samaritan woman asked, “Why do you, a Jewish man, ask for something to drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (Jews and Samaritans didn’t associate with each other.) Jesus responded, “If you recognized God’s gift and who is saying to you, ‘Give me some water to drink,’ you would be asking him and he would give you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you don’t have a bucket and the well is deep. Where would you get this living water? You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave this well to us, and he drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus answered,...